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All Blog Posts (3,110)

Thoughts on finding out your birth name

I recently found out that the State of Colorado has some interesting new rules for adoptees. If you were Born/adopted between June 30 1951 and July 1 1967? you can access your adoption records. I am fortunate enough to be in the early part of the dates, just barely, I'm not sure on the exact end date of this group. I contacted, by phone, because I didn't believe what I read, Colorado Vital records and yes it was true so I spent 40.00 dollars that included the price of th money order and mailed… Continue

Added by carol bartholomew on October 15, 2009 at 3:09pm — 2 Comments

Family Helping Family

I was recently contacted by a distant cousin who had seen the family work I've done at ancestry.com. Now a LOT of my family has been dispersed through early parental deaths, loss of records, etc. etc. So many family members don't know much about the ancestral roots, old family stories and connections, and so forth. My distant cousin has really helped me "collect" a "narrative" by asking about specific family members long passed. Sometimes, you have so much "data" that it seems overwhelming to… Continue

Added by William S Dean on October 15, 2009 at 12:33pm — No Comments

Our ancestors as slave owners

I just read and commented on a ladies blog about her 3rd great grandfather being a slave owner and fathering children by his slave and then keeping them as slaves. It is beyond my comprehension how a person could do this. I've seen the movie Roots several times and it is a fantastic look into our past as a nation. But what amazed me is how the people of the time could have these high morals and go to church every week and turn around and beat and maim their slaves plus father children by a race… Continue

Added by Ken Jones on October 15, 2009 at 11:21am — 1 Comment

Professor Gates, Michelle's Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy and Mine

Dear Friends,

I have a shameful confession to make. I am the great great great granddaughter of slaveholders.

My ancestors held African people and their children in slavery.

In the 1800's, one of my ancestors (probably more) fathered at least one child whom he continued to hold in slavery. Her name was Martha. As she grew into adulthood and had children, he kept them, his grandchildren, as his slaves, too. Once I started researching it, I found that many of my… Continue

Added by Sally Sheridan on October 14, 2009 at 11:00pm — 5 Comments

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY with a rose

Added by Susi (Susan C Jones) Pentico on October 14, 2009 at 10:42pm — No Comments

help with FamilySearch Research Wiki

In a letter sent out to all Family History Consultants and Center Directors, FamilySearch made the following invitation, quoting from the letter:

The FamilySearch Research Wiki is a collaborative Web site where individuals can find answers to family history research questions
Read more...

Added by James Tanner on October 14, 2009 at 8:32pm — No Comments

Family rumor disproved

For many years there has been a rumor in my family that my grandmother had been adopted from her father's cousin's family in New Mexico. My grandmother wrote a letter to my uncle in 1976 which mentioned this rumor (she never believed that it was true), and the family was discussing the rumor at my mother's Fourth of July barbecue this past summer, so this is something that has been speculated about for more than thirty years, possibly longer. Long ago, when my grandmother needed to get a… Continue

Added by Beth Gatlin on October 13, 2009 at 11:36pm — 2 Comments

Sir William Pepperell of Kittery, Maine

Pepperell Family of Kittery, Maine

Photo by Rich Beauchesne seacoastonline.com

The William Pepperell Family

The original settlers of the Maine and New Hampshire coast were known as the “Piscataqua Pioneers.” Early settlements in Strawbery Bank, Portsmouth, Kittery and the Berwicks blended together before boundaries were settled between the colonies. York County, Maine was actually York County, Massachusetts, and the… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on October 13, 2009 at 6:06pm — No Comments

Updated Contact Information

I discovered that the email address I used to sign up with this service is no longer operational. I have updated with a new address. I apologize to anyone who may have tried to contact me and heard nothing back due to my not receiving the messages.

Added by Debora Kerr on October 13, 2009 at 11:31am — No Comments

Memory and Craft

I was recently watching “Craft in America“, PBS’s excellent series covering the major influences that play a part in each artist’s craft. The particularly episode I watched was episode V – Process, that looked at how an artist achieves the skill to become proficient. It profiled several artists about how they have learned their techniques. Artist Tom Joyce, was talking about how he has learned technique from a very old blacksmith. They showed them together, this very old man sitting in a chair… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on October 13, 2009 at 10:41am — No Comments

Ten Million (or more) Books

You may or may not have heard of the settlement of the Google Books lawsuit, but if you have any interest in the future of books or libraries, you may wish to read about it in the Official Google Blog.

For many years, Google has had an ambitious project to digitize all of the world's books. Yes, all of them. In 2005, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed a class action lawsuit against Google challenging the project. The settlement of that lawsuit just… Continue

Added by James Tanner on October 13, 2009 at 5:41am — No Comments

Friends of Dawn Evans Stringer attention Memorial Chat this coming Sunday night!!!!

We are wanting to host a memorial service for Dawn Evan Stringer this coming Sunday after Jim Avery chat on Sunday. We are encouraging as many people who knew Dawn here on Genealogy Wise to attend it. If you cant make it just post a note on here and we will share it with the group.

thank you very much

patsy

Just found her fill Obtituary online from Access NorthGa.Com

Dawn Elizabeth Stringer, 47

Passed Away: 10/11/2009Barrett Funeral Home of Cleveland… Continue

Added by patsy adkins on October 12, 2009 at 10:00pm — No Comments

RootsMagic 4 has new update (4.0.6.0)

Bruce Buzbee of RootsMagic on October 12, 2009, announced an update to the popular RootsMagic 4 program. Quoting from the RootsMagic Bolg, the new, fixed and updated items are:
Read more...

Added by James Tanner on October 12, 2009 at 1:40pm — No Comments

Digitization at the National Archives (NARA)

The National Archives (NARA) in Washington, D.C. as well as its many branch repositories, contains only about 1% to 3% of the documents and materials "created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government." (Fortunately, I might add). See About the National Archives. Only those documents of historical or legal importance (as judged by the government itself, of course) are kept in the vast storage areas. There is no practical way to describe the variety and… Continue

Added by James Tanner on October 12, 2009 at 8:20am — No Comments

Organizing

I'm beginning to organize the data that I've collected over the last four years. Papers, papers, papers, and binders full of information. Beginning to to feel overwhelmed and running across the same information two or three times. Going to spend some time making sense of everything I have and find a proper home for them. I was working with too many family members at one time and will concentrate on ONE family unit at a time. That is my pledge/promise for today.

Added by Davina Harrison on October 12, 2009 at 4:01am — 2 Comments

Parade of States -- online digital genealogy resources -- Arkansas

Arkansas is not known for its online digital collections but the number of records in increasing regularly. Across the U.S. there is a substantial difference between the collections being digitized by the various states. There are considerably more resources online than those shown in the lists below, but most are not digitized and are indexes or transcribed lists.
Read more...

Added by James Tanner on October 11, 2009 at 7:41pm — No Comments

Jabez Treadwell's Will

In Memory

of

Mr Jabez Treadwell

who departed this Life

22d Day of Decr

1781

In the 67th year of his age.

"Bleƒƒed are the dead which die in

the Lord that they may reƒt

from their Labours; and their

works do follow them."

When I first applied for membership in the Mayflower Society, I had eleven different… Continue

Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on October 11, 2009 at 7:00pm — No Comments

Where have all the libraries (and newspapers, telephone directories and etc.) gone?

The other day we had occasion to go to a large university apartment house. In the lobby there was a huge pile of telephone books all in plastic bags. Evidently, the local telephone company had delivered this huge pile, one for each apartment, for the use of the residents. There was just one catch, hardly an of the University students had bothered to pick up their directory. I commented on this to the person we were visiting and she said, "Oh, we don't need one, we just look everything up online… Continue

Added by James Tanner on October 11, 2009 at 1:39pm — No Comments

Why you shouldn't do genealogy !

Every time I discover something new about family it's exciting as it should be,but some things are down right spooky. It's that instance that sends your mind wondering,you start to question your own existance or wonder how the family line survived for 200 years without imploding.

What am I talking about ? I'm talking about cousins marrying cousins !! And not distant cousins as in 5th cousin 10 times removed. I'm talking first and second cousins. In todays world we can avoid… Continue

Added by Ken Jones on October 11, 2009 at 1:30pm — 7 Comments

Sorting and Storing Digital Photos

In previous posts I have talked about sorting and archiving old photos and how important it is to do that. But, I have actually been been daunted by the task of organizing my own digital images. Right now they sit on my hard drive, backed up daily to a second hard drive and dumped into individual folders which are labeled by the date and perhaps the event. Re: Thanksgiving 2007.

While I have really expensive editing and organizing software, it has sometimes taken me awhile to find a… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on October 11, 2009 at 1:08pm — No Comments